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Nut Butter Universe – Pad Thai

I am not usually a winner at anything. I love playing BINGO and black jack but I never win. I enter giveaways on magazine websites and Rafflcopters on my fave websites-nothing. I used to play pool and I was horrible…it was fun, but I never won. But. I won this book from a giveaway on PETA.org last month-I won!! So excited! A new cookbook! Here is my recipe from Nut Butter Universe – Pad Thai.

I am sure you have seen reviews of the book, Nut Butter Universe by Robin Robertson, around the internet-it has inundated all the food websites. I won mine, and then it kind of sat there on my table staring at me. It is definitely intimidating. All the recipes are nut based, or nut butter based. I have never made my own nut butter and I don’t use nuts often in my recipes…very, very rarely. It is one of my weird food things. I don’t mix nuts with regular food, just like I don’t mix fruit and veggies. It just seems weird. But I won the book so I had to try something from it!

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I tried two recipes. The first was cashew frosting which will be in a future recipe. The second was the Pad Thai. This is one recipe that I have tried before but with way less peanut butter so it tasted more sweetly-vinegary then peanut-buttery. I think this recipe was a whole lot better than my other one, because too much vinegar is not necessarily a good thing. Also the NBU recipe doesn’t use sugar which I love, and the other recipe used brown sugar. I didn’t realize then that you don’t need sugar in it!

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So I didn’t want to copy a recipe perfectly, I just couldn’t do it. It is not in me to conform. I changed a few things in the original sauce part of the recipe only because I did not have a few of the items. The recipe called for cayenne and I used red pepper flakes; real garlic and I used jarred minced; fresh ginger and I used jarred; and linguine and I used rice noodles. The biggest change to the recipe was using a ton more veggies. I used two bags frozen mixed veggies and one frozen spinach and I think that was the best decision that I could have made. The original recipe called for some carrots and a red pepper only.

I am glad I used way more veggies than what was listed in the recipe. I think that all that peanut butter with just a little bit of carrots and red pepper would have so overwhelmed everything that it wouldn’t have been enjoyable…and I do love my peanut butter! Also, using a couple bags of frozen veggies and spinach made this into a real healthful meal, not just a little carbalicious meal of just noodles.

Nut Butter Universe Pad Thai, 7 servings

1/2 C Peanut Butter

4 Tsp Tamari

2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar

1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 Tbsp Minced Garlic

1 Tsp Ginger

1/2 C Water

1 Pkg Rice Noodles

1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

2 Pkgs Frozen Mixed Veggies

1 Pkg Frozen Spinach, defrosted and drained well

1 Pkg Frozen Edamame

½ Tsp Salt

1 Bunch Green Onions, washed and chopped

Microwave bags of veggies and spinach. About 6 minutes. Be sure to put box of spinach in microwaveable bowl so it doesn’t leak all over the microwave.

In small microwavable bowl pour in peanut butter, tamari, vinegar, red pepper flakes, garlic, ginger and water. Mash peanut butter into ingredients. Microwave for about two minutes and mix well.

In large pot boil water and drop in rice noodles. Boil as directed (mine was only 3 minutes) then drain. Let sit in strainer.

In large pot add both packages mixed veggies, chopped green onions and spinach. Sauté with a little oil until heated through.

While noodles are still in strainer add the tablespoon of sesame oil to noodles. Using a fork and knife I cut my noodles into small pieces. Drop into pot.